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  Daily Thoughts

January 25th, 2015

Customer memo to corporate: Not in my name.

We do so many things on behalf of the customers! Or because the customers. Or for the customers. We reorganise, […]
January 24th, 2015

Slow, tired, unexpected crashes, not enough memory, poor battery: I mean your company, not your laptop. You need an upgrade.

Think of your company processes and systems as its operating system, the equivalent of your human Windows 7, or 8, […]
January 23rd, 2015

The curious practice of ‘taking responsibility’ in the form of resigning and passing the monkey

This a curious practice. You are in front of a mess, a business fiasco, something perhaps gone horribly wrong. The […]
January 22nd, 2015

Critical thinking in the organization is fitness, health and fresh air, all in one.

The difference between the critical thinker and the un-critical one is not a difference in IQ, or mental strength, or […]
January 21st, 2015

Memo to Mr Jack Welch’s about his ‘10 lessons in leadership’.

Dear Mr Welch: I have never been very fond of you. It’s nothing personal. Over the years, I have admired […]
January 20th, 2015

Note to Internal Communications people: occupy the (corporate) streets.

The Communications function in organizations has still today one of the best chances to drive strategic change. To do this, […]
January 19th, 2015

Organizing, mobilizing, orchestrating: these are ‘Managing’, 2015 version.

When people form the US Republican side wanted to dismiss the importance of a ‘less-well-known’ Obama coming to the fry, […]
January 18th, 2015

Speed or quality; critical thinking or fast decisions: the OR is today unaffordable.

Back in 1994, Jim Collins, consultant an author, gained a lot of attention with his book Built To Last: Successful […]
January 17th, 2015

There are off-the-shelf accounting packages to buy and use. There can’t be such a thing as an off-the-shelf Leadership Development Programme

Avoid off-the-shelf leadership programmes. Pret-a-porter leadership development is attractive but unlikey to be a good answer. There are not universal […]
January 16th, 2015

Leadership is not a HR topic. It’s also not outsource-able. You are stuck with it.

Imagine this statement: Only 27% of global CFOs say they are well prepared to deal with financial management. Terrible,  isn’t […]
January 15th, 2015

10 Ways to slow poisoning an organization (part 4 &5 /5) More plots, end of story

Previously in 10 Ways to slow poisoning an organization: Script 1: I just know. Subtitle: I just know that we’ll […]
January 14th, 2015

More plots in the script library: 10 Ways to slow poisoning an organization (part 3/5)

Previously in ’10 Ways to slow poisoning an organization’: Script 1: I just know. Subtitle: I just know that we’ll […]
January 13th, 2015

10 Ways to slow poisoning an organization (part 2/5) More scripts and plots

Previously in ’10 ways to slow poisoning an organization’: Script 1: I just know. Subtitle: I just know that we’ll […]
January 12th, 2015

10 Ways to slow poisoning an organization (part 1/5) First plots.

  This is in part a self-test. I wrote an article on this in 2003, that is 11 years ago […]
January 11th, 2015

2015 Number one leadership asset: self-criticism. Number two: unlearning. Number three…

Charles Munger commencement speech at Harvard Business School in 1986 contains this gem of a paragraph: Most people early achieve […]
January 10th, 2015

The LinkedIn half-paradox is connecting with people already connected with you. But the strength of connectivity lies in a ‘Weak Link In’, not in a ‘Strong Link In’.

Is Linked In a Digital Rolodex? A digital Resume/CV Library? Do you connect with people who have already given you […]
January 9th, 2015

The trouble with ‘happiness’ in business: ultimate goal or oil for the machine? None of the above? Or not the business of business?

The pursue of happiness as a business goal and/or cultural goal, encounters all spectrum of emotions. For some, a naïve […]
January 8th, 2015

‘It looks like a Bell Curve. It must be a HR Performance Appraisal’. Not in this Century. Normal distributions are dead

Performance appraisal or performance management are one thing. Force Ranking into an artificial normal distribution of people in the organization, […]
January 7th, 2015

Trespasses will be recruited: a four-word strategy in the Battle of Ideas

Societal issues, clash of ideologies, fundamentalism, political engagement (or lack of it), organizational innovation, Leadership 2015, no matter what direction […]
January 6th, 2015

Create fast innovation spaces: kindle ideas in your own Lab126

We are social animals. We live in spaces, with rules, with rituals, in tribal environments. We are both architects of […]